In 1892, William James and six other psychologists came together for a meeting at Clark University. Although there were too few of them to make up a jury or even a respectable hockey team, these seven men decided that it was time to form an organization that represented psychology as a profession, and on that day, the American Psychological Association (APA) was born. The seven psychologists could scarcely have imagined that today their little club would have more than 150,000 members from all over the world. Although all of the original members were professors, 70% of the current members work in clinical and health-related settings instead of colleges and universities. Because the APA is no longer as focused on academic psychology as it once was, the Association for Psychological Science (APS) was founded in 1988 to focus specifically on the needs of research psychologists. Today, it has about 12,000 members.

In 1892, the APA had 31 members, all of whom were White men. Today, about half of all APA members are women, and the percentage of non-White members continues to grow. Surveys of recent PhD recipients reveal a picture of increasing diversification in the field. In 1950, women represented only 15% of all students receiving PhDs in psychology, but that proportion had grown to 70% in 2010, and the proportion of racial minorities grew from a very small number to 24% during that same period. Clearly, psychology is increasingly reflecting the diversity of American society.

The current involvement of women and minorities in the APA and in psychology more generally can be traced to early pioneers who blazed a trail that others followed. In 1905, Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930) became the first woman to serve as president of the APA. Calkins studied with William James at Harvard and later became a professor of psychology at Wellesley College. In her presidential address to the APA, Calkins described her theory of the role of the “self” in psychological function. Arguing against Wundt’s structuralist ideas that the mind can be dissected into components, Calkins claimed that the self is a single unit that cannot be broken down into individual parts. Calkins wrote four books and published over 100 articles during her illustrious career (Calkins, 1930; Scarborough & Furumoto, 1987; Stevens & Gardner, 1982). Today, women play leading roles in all areas of psychology. Some of the men who formed the APA might have been surprised by the prominence of women in the field today, but we suspect that William James, a strong supporter of Mary Calkins, would not be one of them.

Just as there were no women at the first meeting of the APA, there weren’t any non-White people either. The first member of a minority group to become president of the APA was Kenneth Clark (1914–2005), who was elected in 1970. Clark studied the self-image of African American children and argued that segregation of the races creates great psychological harm. Clark’s conclusions had a large influence on public policy, and his research contributed to the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling (Brown v. Board of Education) to outlaw segregation in public schools (Guthrie, 2000). Clark’s interest in psychology was sparked as an undergraduate at Howard University, when he took a course offered by Francis Cecil Sumner (1895–1954), who was the first African American to receive a PhD in psychology (from Clark University in 1920). Sumner’s main interest was on the education of African American youth (Sawyer, 2000).

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Before describing what psychologists do, it should be noted that most people who major in psychology do not go on to become psychologists. Psychology has become a major academic, scientific, and professional discipline with links to many other disciplines and career paths (see the Hot Science box). That being said, what should you do if you do want to become a psychologist, and what should you fail to do if you desperately want to avoid it? You can become “a psychologist” by a variety of routes, and the people who call themselves psychologists may hold a variety of different degrees. Students intending to pursue careers in psychology typically finish college and enter graduate school in order to obtain a PhD (or doctor of philosophy) degree in some particular area of psychology (e.g., social, cognitive, developmental). During graduate school, students generally gain exposure to the field by taking classes and learn to conduct research by collaborating with their professors. Although William James was able to master every area of psychology because the areas were so small during his lifetime, today a student can spend the better part of a decade mastering just one.

After receiving a PhD, students often go on for more specialized research training by pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision of an established researcher in his or her area, or they apply for a faculty position at a college or university or a research position in government or industry. Academic careers usually involve a combination of teaching and research, whereas careers in government or industry are typically dedicated to research alone.

But research is not the only career option for a psychologist. Most people who call themselves psychologists neither teach nor do research, but rather, they assess or treat people with psychological problems. Most of these clinical psychologists work in private practice, often in partnerships with other psychologists or with psychiatrists (who have earned an MD, or medical degree, and are allowed to prescribe medication). Other clinical psychologists work in hospitals or medical schools, some have faculty positions at universities or colleges, and some combine private practice with an academic job. Many clinical psychologists focus on specific problems or disorders, such as depression or anxiety, whereas others focus on specific populations, such as children, ethnic minority groups, or older adults (see FIGURE 1.2). Just over 10% of APA members are counseling psychologists, who assist people in dealing with work or career issues and changes or help people deal with common crises such as divorce, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one.

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Psychologists are also quite active in educational settings. About 5% of APA members are school psychologists, who offer guidance to students, parents, and teachers. A similar proportion of APA members, known as industrial/organizational psychologists, focus on issues in the workplace. These psychologists typically work in business or industry and may be involved in assessing potential employees, finding ways to improve productivity, or in helping staff and management to develop effective planning strategies for coping with change or anticipated future developments. Of course, this brief list doesn’t begin to cover all the different career paths that someone with training in psychology might take. For instance, sports psychologists help athletes improve their performances, forensic psychologists assist attorneys and courts, and consumer psychologists help companies develop and advertise new products. Indeed, we can’t think of any major enterprise that doesn’t employ psychologists.

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Even this brief and incomplete survey of the APA membership provides a sense of the wide variety of contexts in which psychologists operate. You can think of psychology as an international community of professionals devoted to advancing scientific knowledge; assisting people with psychological problems and disorders; and trying to enhance the quality of life in work, school, and other everyday settings.

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